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Niger

A landlocked country in the Sahel region of Africa, the Niger ranks last on UNDP’s 2015 Human Development Index. Its population of 19.8 million people is growing at 3.9 percent a year – one of the highest rates in the world.

More than 1.5 million people in Niger are affected by food insecurity in 2017. Another 1.5 million are estimated to be chronically food insecure, and millions more experience transitory shortages during the lean season. Nearly 20 percent of the population cannot meet their food needs because of factors such as inadequate production, security constraints and demographic growth. This figure rises to nearly 30 percent during periods of poor rainfall. In a context of widespread and entrenched gender inequality, food insecurity affects women disproportionately, especially in rural areas.

42.2 percent of children under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition and 10.3 percent are acutely malnourished. Diets lack the necessary vitamins and minerals. As a result, over 73 percent of children under 5, and almost 46 percent of women of reproductive age, are anaemic.

The rainy season is short, and the country is hit by increasingly irregular rainfall, rising temperatures, desertification and ever more frequent shocks. Four severe climate-related food and nutrition crises since 2000 have exacerbated Niger’s vulnerability.

Epidemics and conflict in three neighbouring countries aggravate the situation. . The conflict in northern Nigeria has displaced people – many of whom are chronically malnourished – into the Lake Chad area. Fighting has spilled over the border, deepening local food insecurity and endangering host communities, refugees and humanitarian workers.

Persistent gender disparities continue to challenge development and have an impact on food and nutritional security.

The economy cannot support adequate social safety nets for its large vulnerable population, and the Government’s ability to confront hunger is limited by financial, capacity and logistical constraints.

The World Food Programme has been working in the Niger since 1968. Our current work aims to alleviate hunger and malnutrition not only in emergency situations but also in the long term through resilience-building. Our operations are aligned with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, particularly Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17: ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture’ and ‘Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development’.

What the World Food Programme is doing in Niger

Climate sensitive livelihoods and asset creation

WFP helps the poorest build livelihoods through its community-based asset creation programme. In exchange for food assistance, beneficiaries create assets, by regenerating land or rehabilitating ponds. There is a special focus on access to land and markets for the poorest and women. Special measures to support climate risk management, like early warning, climate insurances and services will be scaled up. The objective is to build long-term resilience.

Support for smallholder farmers

Using its purchasing power to buy from local smallholder farmers, WFP effectively links agricultural recovery programmes with its own food and nutritional assistance interventions. This helps smallholders to connect to institutional markets. WFP also supports a progressive transfer of knowledge and capacity to national counterparts, combining technical assistance and other capacity building and policy support.

Nutrition

WFP Niger’s nutrition programme involves a comprehensive, community-based lifecycle approach, which focuses on children under 2, pregnant and nursing women and adolescent girls. With this framework, WFP supports treatment of moderate acute malnutrition, prevention of malnutrition and integration of micronutrients. It also ensures all interventions mainstream nutrition and particularly supports local production and fortification of nutritious foods.

School meals

WFP partners with the Ministry of Education to design, implement and build capacity to deliver school meal programmes. Beyond health and nutrition outcomes, WFP places emphasis on supporting school enrolment and educational empowerment of girls. Community participation and the promotion of homegrown school meals, with a special attention on integration of smallholder farmers through local purchases, are central to WFP’s strategy.

Emergency preparedness and response

WFP provides life-saving food assistance and nutrition support to crisis and shock affected populations, including IDPs, refugees and host communities. Special attention is paid to Lake Chad crisis response, supporting people through the lean season and addressing the Malian refugee situation. In a context of recurrent crises, WFP Niger is also investing in preparedness to ensure effectiveness, efficiency and speed of response when crises occur.

Capacity development and strategic partnerships

WFP Niger supports capacity development to achieve the Zero Hunger Goal. This combines supporting Zero Hunger governance and response capacities. WFP offers nationally tailored technical assistance and capacity building packages in key areas like early warning and disaster risk reduction, resilience, smallholder market support or productive and social safety net programming. Within this framework, WFP also invests in developing a broad range of partnerships to bring in the knowledge, resources and other means needed to achieve Zero Hunger.